The 500 Year Event

October 18, 2009

The biblical rains of late September reminded us again how fragile our encampment on this planet can be. Great and modest houses were flooded, some a few inches and some many feet underwater. Trees are equal opportunity house crushers, and charlatans claiming to be legitimate companies prey as in every disaster on the anxious and desperate, well-to-do and not so well-to-do alike. And insurance companies do their thing — some reasonably and fairly and some forgetting that their mission is not profit alone.

Where we fit in to this is to never forget our company vision in good times and bad, to be who we are, to be ethical and fair and to recognize those times when 10% or 15% off our bottom line on a project may be just what makes the difference between us or someone not as qualified doing a project for someone who has lost a lot and is under enormous stress. We do not fancy negotiations with insurance companies (some are very good to work with!) but we offer to step in and offer our perspective and perhaps assist in getting a more equitable settlement for our clients. We can help and try to, but we are always in after the clean-up companies and they are the ones who make a huge difference in the way they conduct themselves when their/our clients are most vulnerable. Mold scare tactics and exorbitant prices for placing dehumidifiers and fans on site are discouraging symptoms of the industry.

Rick and I talk occasionally about getting into the disaster response and clean-up industry as a diversification of our company. It would be a major undertaking, but perhaps at the end of the day, a fulfilling one. Yes, it could no doubt be profitable, but equally if not more important, it could be a challenge to uphold our values .